BS Friday Answer

The BS Friday story is false. Funny how everybody thought it was true. I guess we all did crazy stuff when we were kids. The thing is, we were exactly like that when I was a young teen. We raced our bikes and jumped over everything. Eventually a lot of us got sponsors and raced dirt bikes for a while. The river jump was definitely considered but never attempted.

The story of me jumping over the back of a tractor-trailer is true though. I did that and became a legend in my neighborhood. I paid for it for a while, but it was worth it. The short version is this:

We were in the field near my house one day and I noticed that the back of the tractor-trailer the place used for storage just happened to be at the bottom of the hill. Naturally I decided that it needed to be jumped. I believed that I could get enough speed up to clear the thing So we built a ramp above it and I jumped it.

There were a couple of things I didn’t think about though. First, I didn’t think about the fact that the hill kept going down on the other side of the trailer. It was a much longer way down on the other side. I also never considered that I would have to land after clearing the thing. Those are a couple of things I should have considered.

Well, I came down the hill, hit the ramp and easily cleared the back of the truck. It was a thrill that is hard to describe! Watching the trailer passing beneath me was exhilarating. Then all I could see was air and a long way to go before I hit the ground. That was another kind of thrill, not quite so fun.

I landed the bike exactly as I should have. I was told I had great form. But when the bike hit the ground, the back tire blew out. There was actually a flattened out area on the metal rim. Then the front of the bike hit and the front tire blew. My weight pushed me forward and the handlebars went so far forward that my nose was right with the tire. When I tried to right myself, I found out the hard way that I had broken the seat off somewhere during the landing and when I went back the seat post rammed into my butt and continued up the small of my back. I had a cut along my tailbone up to almost the middle of my back.

Finally the bike just gave up the ghost and the front wheel came off. I went tumbling down the hill over the handlebars. Once stopped I could hear everybody running toward me yelling. I was hurting! My arms and my right shoulder were throbbing. My tailbone was really hurting. But I didn’t want to seem like a wuss so I stood up (in great pain) and raised my arms like I was an Olympic champion or something.

The bike was a total loss. Even the frame had cracked where the handlebars were attached to it. Both rims were shot, the seat bar was severely bent and the seat was way back up the hill. It was done for, but I healed up just fine. After that, no one doubted that I would do almost anything on my bike.

Kids believe they are indestructible. Maybe that’s how we survive things like this. Don’t think, just do.